Beitrags-Archiv für die Kategory 'Grammar'

Same words in English and German but different meaning

There are words in German and English which are spelt in the same way, but which have totally different meanings. These words may cause embarrassing situations for example: mobile phone or cell phone is called in German „Handy“, but the English word „handy“ has a different meaning.
So it is better to know them.

the stock (Eng) = die Aktie, der Bestand der Stock (Ger) = the cane, the stick, (but also a story in a building)

Homographs are words that are spelled the same but vary in pronunciation or meaning. But don’t get confused by terms like heteronyms, homographs, homophones or homonyms. It really doesn’t matter how they are called. Just repeat the words several times.

It is good to know these words, because some are very common and they are often a sources of misunderstanding. Keep the example for cellular phone in mind.

German Articles – Part 1

We use nouns for people, objects, things or ideas. Nouns are normally (not always) preceded by an article. Nouns are always written with a capital letter in German.

In German we have three main articles:

der (masculine), die (feminine) and das (neuter).

For example:

– der Mann (the man)

– die Frau (the woman)

– das Tier (the animal)

The articles change depending on

– the gender (masculine, feminine, neuter)

– the number (singular or plural)

– and the case (nominative, genitive, dative and accusative)

The different forms can be: der, die, das, des, dem and den depending on gender, number and case. We are going to show how to handle the articles step by step – so don’t worry. This site is only part 1.

The Gender

The best method to get familiar to the articles is by listening a lot to the German language. We don’t recommend learning words by heart but if you like to memorize words you should never learn just the nouns! Always try to remember also the main articles der, die and das.

The grammatical gender does not follow a logical set of rules but there are some noun endings which give us a hint. But be careful, it does not always work!

By the way, have a look at the English endings too. A lot of English and German words are similar.

In order to optimize our site for you and to be able to continuously improve it, we use cookies. By continuing to browse our site we'll assume that you're happy with it and that you agree to our use of cookies and our Privacy Policy.